


Better

by neolithicdream



Category: Grey's Anatomy
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-22
Updated: 2015-04-22
Packaged: 2018-03-25 04:44:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3797155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neolithicdream/pseuds/neolithicdream
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set several years in the future. Sofia is almost 9. Arizona considers how the life she has now is better than the one she once craved with Callie.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Better

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Pure fluff. Also this is the tail end of a series I have written in my fevered Calzona brain - a place where they broke up in 11.5, learned to live without each other, dated others, accepted - to a greater or lesser extent - the others new bf/gfs and then... Well that would be telling. This mostly unwritten -other than in my brain- series begins with my story Breaking Good but it's not necessary to read that to read this at all.

Sofia's giggles roused her from her daydream. Arizona couldn't help but smile as she looked up from her long since abandoned book to see the cause. Her daughter had always been very susceptible to tickles as a younger child and now, at the great age of " almost NINE, Mama" nothing much had changed.

"No, no, no....please Mama, help , make her stop tickling me please, Mama..." Sofia's words were barely coherent through her gasps and giggles as her tummy and sides were tickled relentlessly by her blonde companion.

Arizona caught the eye of the younger blonde woman and just laughed. Inwardly she sighed in relief. She wasnt sure if they'd bond, if this outing was too much to soon but her worries appeared groundless. Sofia was clearly smitten. And the feeling was clearly mutual. 

It could have made things quite awkward if Sofia hadn't taken to the new addition to the family. And that's what she was now, family. It had taken a long time to get to this point and Arizona had needed to do a lot of convincing but yes she was now family.

It helped that Callie liked her now too. Mind you Arizona had been determined to make this happen sooner or later even if Callie hadn't gotten on board. It should have happened sooner, of course but maybe time and a little maturity had been a good thing. 

 

Sofia's hysterical shrieks subsided when her new friend finally took pity on her and Arizona tried to concentrate her attention on her novel once more. Even with her beach umbrella and shades though it was too hot for her to really be comfortable enough to read. And not that she would ever admit to it but her fashionable shades were no match for her prescription reading glasses which were safely on her bedside locker at home. Carefully folding the page down she closed the book and took in her surroundings once more.

Alki Beach was a perfectly nice beach. Perfect for families enjoying a lovely Seattle Summers day. It was a weekday so it wasn't too crowded. It was warm but not unbearably so due to a light breeze. Still it was warm enough to damage delicate skin so she'd been diligently applying sunscreen to herself and her three youngest companions every half hour or so. Of course Sofia grumbled about it each time and whatever Sofia did had to be immediately copied by her four year old brother so he too whined every time his mother reached for the tube. He moaned too that he had more on than "So" already and that was true. Then again whatever match Sofia's genes might be for the suns rays his were none. Just like Arizona he would turn lobster red within 30 minutes even when the sun appeared to be hidden by Seattles clouds. They'd learned that lesson the hard way so she was taking no chances.

And as for the toddler who was now sleeping quietly stretched lengthwise along Arizona's torso well what little skin was exposed at all was smathered in the stuff.

The not quite yet two year old had squealed in excitement when she'd seen the beach, squealed in fear when her big toe first touched the waves, clung on hysterically when more of her was dipped into the sea and then, in a fashion that was already a recognized personality trait, within a few minutes of flapping about with her buoyancy armbands tried in vain to escape her captors clutches to swim independently. It wasnt going to happen as her other mother had held on tight but it was typical of Ellie all the same. At just under two she was already her own independent woman. Arizona shook her head. Her daughter had inherited her dimples, her big blue eyes and, somewhat unfortunately she felt, her stubbornness and independence.

Ellie was the most like her in personality. James,who physically resembled her more in some ways, and was such a carbon copy of Timothy as a baby that sometimes it almost hurt to look at him, was in personality almost closer to his other mother. 

 

She smiled at the thought, a smile so broad it caught her companions attention. 

"Penny for them?" the young woman said before adding "...if your smile gets any bigger it might crack your face."

Arizona shook her head, laughing as she did "I'm just...happy...it's a beautiful day, and I'm here enjoying it on the beach with my family, what more could I ask for?"

"Ice-cream maybe?"

"Huh? "

The blonde simply pointed a few yards up the beach where a very familiar sight was sauntering towards them carrying a tray of Icecream cones and drinks. She looked a tad flustered but her gait was unhurried all the same. Arizona frowned a little as she noticed several guys and at least two women follow the woman's sashaying hips rather too intently. Of course she was doing exactly the same but she had every right to, the others did not. If her leg wasn't lying beside her wrapped up in its custom made water and, hopefully, sand proof bag she might just be tempted to search round for a brick or two.

 

Still the object of all that attention was oblivious to it, would even deny it existed which to Arizona was simply crazy. How the most sexy gorgeous woman in Seattle didnt know she was gorgeous and sexy really was astonishing.

James and Sofia noticed her approach when she was just feet away,"Ice-cream", "Mami" were screamed simultaneously and Callie laughed loudly, pointedly looking at Sofia before saying, "anyone would think you love ice-cream more than your Mami!" 

James, forever a Mami's boy was quick to answer "I love Mami the mostest" and adding quickly, after hearing the exaggerated cough behind him "...and Mama too" followed up by a barely audible "...and icecweam."

After distributing the ice-creams to Sofia, Sloane and James she plopped unceremoniously beside her wife, sighing loudly "The line at the ice-cream kiosk was horrendous, babe" before laying a gentle peck on Arizonas lips. "I got us a cone to share? And two ice waters?"

Arizona's response was to take a very generous lick of the proferred cone. 

"Hey greedy guts...leave some for me!" Callie laughed, suppressing more laughter when Sofia interjected bossily, " Yeah, Mama...it's nice to share!"

As the oldest in a family of three children Sofia heard those words repeatedly. They were to her almost 9 yr old ears the most hated words in the English language.

 

All to soon afterwards the only evidence of ice-cream was found round the mouths of Sofia and James and,unknown to Arizona,a blob of creamy vanilla goodness at the tip of her nose. Callie briefly wondered if it would be considered wrong to lick her wife's nose on a public beach?

"You got icecream on your nose,honey." Callie touched the tip of her own nose to indicate where. Arizona swiped her finger along her nose to remove the last vestiges of cream then promptly licked her finger clean, "Mmmm...yummy." Maybe it was the mischevious twinkle in her wife's eyes but Callie's resolve broke and she leant in for a quick taste of Arizona's lips, echoing Arizona's words, "Mmmm...yummy."

One kiss became another and might have become yet another when a shrill voice voiced its owner's displeasure, "Mommies! Eeeew!"

Sofia was standing now, hands on hips, shaking her head in exasperation, "Sorry, Sloane, sometimes my Mommies are bold!" She emphasised the last word with a small nod. Sofia was very anxious to make a good impression on her newly discovered big sister, Sloane. She knew Sloane would like her but she was worried about the rest of her family. Like, she loved her little brother to bits but that didnt mean he wasnt really,really,annoying. And Ellie was her little baby sister and she loved her to bits too but she wasnt much use, although she was getting better.

But her Mommies, they were the problem. Now Sofia knew her Mommies were the best Mommies in the whole, wide, world. And not just cause they were her Mommies. No. Her Mami fixed people with broken bones and sore knees and she even helped build legs for hurt soldiers and people like her Mama. And her Mama fixed tiny humans when they got broken or sick, and sometimes the tiny humans were still in their Mommy's tummy when she fixed them, they were the tiniest humans of all.

She sighed loudly. She'd have to tell Sloane all about what her Mommies did cause otherwise Sloane might think her Mommies were silly what with all the kissing and stuff. And she wanted Sloane to like her Mommies cause Sloane was like, the coolest big sister ever and she wanted her to be her new best friend so her Mommies really needed to stop the kissing.

Arizona whispered to Callie through her giggles, "the hands on hip and loud sigh is pure Calliope Iphigenia, babe!" "Huh..." Callie sniggered back, "... The bossy know it all nod is totally you."

 

Sloane Sloan decided to stay silent. She was loving getting to know her new "family" even if technically only Sofia was family. Both women had welcomed her into their family even if Callie had seemed less welcoming initially. She understood her reluctance; her interactions almost 10 years earlier with Callie weren't exactly designed to have the older woman think well of her.

She had changed a lot in the past decade. She'd grown up, she was no longer the ditzy somewhat lazy very irresponsible young woman that the two doctors met back then. Neither was she the person who'd rejected the friendly approaches from Dr. Torres on her father's death. She hadn't come to the funeral. Hadn't done much rather than mumbled a "thanks for letting me know" and "I can't get time off work" when a clearly grief-stricken Callie had phoned her with several updates from "your father's plane is missing" to "we will be switching off life support tomorrow".

She'd received a Christmas card from them in the early years, never getting around to sending one herself. She'd kept the first two, the one of a tiny Sofia and her three beaming parents. The next had a beaming Sofia dressed as Santa with her three parents dressed as an Elf (Arizona), a Reindeer (Mark) and an incongruously grinning Grinch (Callie). The next year there was just Sofia and the following one, and the last one sent, just had Callie and Sofia. She had wondered about that but only fleetingly as really at that point she wasn't looking for family. 

At that point in her life she was trying to figure out who she was, she'd been on her own (her mother had done her best she supposed but they were never really what you would call close) all her adult life. She didnt need anyone, not her mother ( who'd in part always resented having been saddled with her as a young single mom), not her 'practically a stranger' and now dead Dad and certainly not a squealing toddler as a sister. 

That first Christmas without a card had stung though. For a minute or two at least. And then her Mom fell ill and she'd moved to be closer to her and didn't bother updating any of her contacts. Her mom's illness brought them closer than they'd ever been when she was well. Conversations were had, tears shed, accusations made and forgiven. They had become friends in a way that sometimes children and their parents do as adults. 

And she had become an adult.

She'd enrolled in a course in the local community college, finally getting the equivalent of her high school diploma and finally for a year she became her Moms full time carer, nursing her till the last.

Maybe it was that realisation that she was truly alone or the realisation that life really was shockingly short but she had started thinking about family. About the baby she'd given up so they would both have a better life and the baby sister who linked her to the Dad she never really knew. It was an open adoption so she'd made contact. And regrets and worries she'd never known she had dissipated when she saw how happy her child was with doting parents and a younger brother too.

And eventually she made contact with Dr. Torres. They'd been reluctance, an unasked "why now?" hung in the air. She knew the older woman suspected that it wasn't about reaching out to her little sister but rather about the trust fund Mark had set up for her from which she received a small monthly sum. She knew now that she owed her current situation to Arizona who had prevailed on her wife to give her another chance.

And once the ice had broken well they had welcomed her with open arms. Getting to know her baby sister was delightful, Sofia was a hoot - a weird combination of young child and wise adult - or at least she herself thought she was wise. And she hero- worshipped Sloane and boy, was that an odd feeling for a young woman who'd had few role models when she was growing up and had never had anyone look up to her ever.

Sofia was adorable, a mixture of both her Moms who in turn were both pretty awe-inspiring. The little time she'd spent in their company made her aspire to one day have what they had, a loving relationship of equals. The work they did was beyond believable but it was them as a couple and their family she really loved. Being allowed to be part of it was just a gift and one she didnt want to spurn.

It was early days and she didnt always understand the dynamics of the family so while they tried to put her at her ease she really was still trying a little too hard to impress, trying equally hard not to blow it. Like she thought she had last week when she'd asked about the Christmas card, the one without Arizona.

"So, like, were you away for work that year, in Africa like?" She'd seen photos of the blonde clearly working as a Doctor somewhere in Africa so she added two and two and got something that definitely wasnt four.

"Uhm, well...ahh we were , we weren't, uhm.." Callie stuttered

"We were divorced." Arizona had stated far more matter of factly.

 

"What? But you guys are like sickeningly perfect and..." She had blurted it out without thinking but seriously they were so she was shocked. Callie had looked unimpressed but Arizona had just laughed and said,"Sickeningly? Hmmm...interesting" before winking at her and then turning to her wife and saying "I think it's a compliment, Calliope?"

 

And if that wasnt bad enough she then blurted out, in front of their three kids, "Did someone cheat?" Seriously sometimes her mouth operated independent of her brain.

Before Callie could throw her out on her head, and she was sporting a look of intent, Sofia piped up, "Mami cheats all the time, she's so mean!" Arizona had somewhat unfortunately just taken a sip of water which then went down the wrong way which meant the next few uncomfortable minutes were spent with Callie patting her wife on the back, while shooting contrasting death glares at Sloane and puzzled frowns at her daughter.

When Arizona finally was able to speak she firmly said, "Yup, she does Sofia,Mami doesn't play fair at all, especially at Monopoly, right?" And Sofia went off on a long rant about how her Mami always bought all the Hotels and put them everywhere and how Sofia always got to go to Jail without passing GO and how much she hated playing Monopoly!

"I love playing Moneyopsoly, Slo" James piped up, he didnt want to be left out and really he wanted Sloane to know he was a big boy. "I help my Mama count the money and we play with the little dog."

Later with the kids in bed she had tried to apologise but Arizona stopped her. "I cheated... we were going through some awful stuff...and we tried, Callie tried to...but in the end we just were..."

"Arizona!" Callie looked none too pleased at Arizona's revelation. 

"What? She's family now, right? She might as well know our sordid past " Arizona's smile was nonchalant, "...especially seeing she seems to have inherited Marks lack of tact?" 

Callie just sighed and nodded saying "Fine, but if she's going to know she's going to know all of it, it's not like you just did that without a context, ok?" And then she'd turned to her and said, "This is our story and we will share it with you but this is not for sharing with Sofia, ever? Ok?"

 

And so they had, over a bottle of expensive wine, coffee and more wine. They'd talked about the dark years after the plane crash that had claimed her Dad, the amputation (which she hadn't even been aware of and which induced lots of ahhs and oohs and yet another cringing blurted moment of "can I touch your leg") and its aftermath.

Callie and Arizona took turns narrating their story. Callie stayed silent when Arizona mentioned Lauren Boswell, Arizona wiped at her eyes when Callie talked about the day she pulled the plug on their relationship. They both said that had they not split then they would not be together now. Briefly mentioning other names, an Alice, an Owen, a Karen and then they both laughed at the name Heather but wouldn't say why.

 

Arizona said she had never stopped loving Callie but she had forgotten how to love her and for a long while how to love herself too. She said realising you've broken the person you love is hard to come to terms with and it took them both a long time to figure it all out.

Callie said that the year they spent apart was the hardest of her life and yet she learned more about herself that year then ever before. Life had run roughshod over both of them, leaving them battered and bruised; stuff had happened that changed both of them. Leaving them, superficially at least,two different people from the women who'd fallen headlong into love only years earlier. The unstoppable force they had thought their love was had proven all too stoppable.

And then they had reconciled. Both afraid, a fear that threatened to stop them before they even began. "But love can overcome all..." Callie said, smiling when she added, "...even stubborn blonde surgeons." 

 

When they were finished telling her how James and Ellie came about they had just looked at each other and smiled. And it was in that look that she saw the love. She knew right there and then that one day she wanted to look at someone like that and see it returned.

"Don't get me wrong, sometimes I want to throw bricks at her!" Arizona somewhat ruined the moment and Callie laughed and added "I sometimes want to throw her out a high rise window!" And in unison said " but I don't so I guess we're stuck with each other now" and they laughed at their little in joke.

 

So yeah she admired them, was still in awe but it meant a lot that they'd let her in to their real story and so they were her aspirational couple and their kids were part of her family too now, or at least she wanted them to be.

 

So hearing Sofia clearly embarrassed by her Moms public display of affection left her confused. She imagined the two women were out and proud but was she supposed to say something? And what to say that didnt involve her putting one of her big feet in her mouth again?

 

Sofia saved her though, " Can Sloane and me go play on the swings?" If her Moms were going to behave badly she needed some quiet time with Sloane to explain that although kissing was yeucky it was okay when grown-ups did it if they were best friends like her Mommies. Even if it was still yeuchy.

James was already on his feet with a loud "Yay, swings" before Sofia knew what was happening.

"Nooooo, you're not coming, just me and my sister." Sofia told him firmly.

"Sofia!" Her Mami loudly chastised.

"But Mama!" Sofia bypassed Callie to immediately plead with her Mama, years of experience had taught her that. " I don't have to share Sloane, do I? She's my sister, right?"

 

"Mine too!" James turned speedily to face Callie, a tear already forming in his left eye at the thought of being left behind. "I go with So and Slo to the playground?"

 

"No,she's my sister, she's not your sister, you're not coming, you're only a baby."

It was nothing new to either of them to see WWIII erupt between their two eldest but Sofia's possessiveness over her new-old sister was a novel twist.

 

"Im not a baby,Ellie's a baby and all babies do is cry and snore and wear diapers, I don't wear diapers, see...."

Arizona was the first to react as she saw what he was about to do, "James Torres! What are you doing?" She quickly pulled up his shorts before he proved to the entire beach that indeed, yes, he did not wear diapers. " since when do we pull down our underwear in public?"

He looked in confusion, "... But Mama these aren't underwear these are swimming shorts" She whispered something in his ear, causing him to shake his head fiercely and blush and utter a barely audible " No, Mama." One crisis averted.

 

The other remained. The swings. And Sofia had her trump card and she played it. "Sloane isn't your sister, she's only my sister so you can't come to the playground."

James blue eyes were rounder than saucers, as his mouth fell open, and he stared, silenced, first at Sofia, then Sloane and finally his two mothers, "Mommies!" and his lip began to quiver and his eyes fill with water in a way that never failed to kill Callie.

 

Sloane quickly interjected, " well ya know....I mean he...I mean you are right Sofia, technically..." All but Ellie was staring at her now and she really hoped that she was , for once, not going to say the exact wrong thing, ".....bu-uut you are my sister and you are his sister so that kinda makes me his...." he looked at the two women who seemed to taking some pleasure at her obvious discomfort, they were smirking and clearly not going to intervene to help "...special kind of sister?" She petered off.

"Yay!" Came simultaneously with a far less enthusiastic " Aaw do I have to share you too?"

 

After assurances from Sloane that yes she would keep an eye on his every movement and that no one would go near the Monkey Bars and that she really was okay with it the three of them went off in search of the playground leaving Callie and Arizona and a still sleeping Ellie behind.

"You were right, ya know, about her." Callie said after a brief while.

"I'm always right Calliope..." she replied "... you really should know that by now."

"Hmmm..." reaching in for a quick kiss Callie added "...well you are always right, eventually."

They both laughed and relaxed, enjoying the unexpected peace and quiet for a few minutes.

"Do her legs need some more cream?"

"Honey, you have so much sunscreen on her she could sit on the sun and she wouldn't burn."

" Thats what you said about our little lobster boy, remember?" 

Callie sighed and reached for the tube. " You want some too, I can do your back, or your front?

" You just want an excuse to touch me in public." Arizona laughed

"Maybe, but apparently I'm not allowed in front of Princess Sofia!"

They both laughed. More and more Sofia was becoming squeamish about the "yeuchy kissing thing".

"At least we know its the kissing and not the two Mommies that bother her." Callie said.

"Yes, last weeks incident proved that." Arizona nodded before Callie added, "I totally blame you for that that by the way."

"What? How am I responsible for our daughter punching a boy in the face just because he used a bad word? It's your fiery Latina temper that's to blame if anything."

"And just who taught her how to throw a punch and who told her always defend your family?" 

" I didnt mean her to defend with punches! Still she packs a mean punch for her size, I mean that kid was bigger and taller and she broke his nose with one shot."

"Just as well I'm an Ortho surgeon with a friend in plastics."

"Hmmmmm....." Arizona agreed, the whole incident had threatened to be very serious but the boys parents really didnt want it publicised that their beloved son had picked up some rather unsavoury homophobic slurs at home so free medical attention and a begrudging apology from Sofia had resolved it,"... still I doubt he will be telling anymore little girls that having two Mommies is disgusting anytime soon."

They both laughed, both just a little proud of their bossy little firebrand.

They settled down to catch some rays, a pleasant silence settling on them. 

"This is nice, just us and Elena." Arizona was not a fan of shortened names and still harboured hopes that one day their youngest would adopt her given name, a name that her older brother had from day one converted to Ellie and that had stuck.

"It is."

After a few minutes a very loud sigh alerted Callie to the fact that Arizona was staring at her, a peculiar look on her face.

"What? What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong,babe, everything's....good." Arizonas smile was enigmatic despite her words.

 

"No, no, don't do that , don't pretend everything's ok if it isn't, we don't do that, remember, not anymore." Callie propped herself up one one elbow to peer more closely at her wife, "... That didnt sound like a everything's ok sigh."

 

Arizona sighed again this time followed by a genuine smile. She chewed on her bottom lip, concentrating to find the right words. "I was just thinking, just now..."

"Oh God..."Callie interjected "...the last time you were "just thinking" Ellie was the result and... Arizona we can't, three is..."

"Thats not what I'm thinking, I know....four would be...I know." She looked a little saddened at that and laid a gentle kiss on her daughters small hand and then continued, "I was thinking just now and earlier when you were gone for ice-cream...." She breathed in deeply, a sudden lump appearing in her throat, "...I was thinking that this is better, how much better this is..."

"Better?"

The lump seemed to double in size and her voice lowered accordingly so much so that Callie had to lean in to hear.

"Better than you, me, a beach in Spain, you in a bikini, me with a sangria."

 

Even now, Callie thought, this woman could melt her with a few short words. She smiled, reached forward to take her wife's hand in hers, "Yeah? Really? Alki Beach, Seattle is better than a beach in Spain?"

Arizona nodded.

"An ice cream cone beats Sangria?" Arizona shrugged and smiled in reply.

Callie glanced down at her own torso, "... This old battered body is..."

"Hottest body on this beach by a mile."

"No regrets? Callie asked quietly

Arizona shook her head with a smile, "...not any more."

Callie cupped Her wife's shortened limb, "... Even this?"

"I would not change one thing about my life right now or anything about the path we took to get here." Arizona meant those words and Callie knew that to be true. "You?"

Callie clarified, " Regrets?" Arizona nodded.

Callie simply shook her head, "No, not one. Not any more."

They both smiled, knowingly, then leaning into kiss a sudden piercing wail broke through. Ellie had slept enough and she wanted the entire beach to know it.

 

Callie was the one sighing now as she roused herself and picked up there youngest saying "There, there Ellie, what's the matter, will Mami make it all better?"

 

They had made it through despite the odds. And it was better. Better than ever before. It was no longer a pretty romantic bubble. It was real, they both understood and knew that now. For better, for worse could mean as often as not, worst, and worst could mean far worse than imaginable. They'd hurt each other and themselves, they'd failed miserably and somehow they emerged not unbroken but healed.

It was better. They were better.

There would be hard times ahead, they didnt know when or what form they would take but they would face them together this time. They would hold on tight and never let go.

And maybe one day they might even have that Sangria on that mythical Spanish beach but if not, no matter, cause what they had right here right now, was better anyways.

So much better.


End file.
